Mar 8 Those bad driving gigs

US-based Uber and Lyft ride-hailing drivers earn a mere $3.37 per hour before taxes. Plus three-quarters of these gig economy workers earn less than the minimum wage in their state, and almost one-third of drivers actually lose money once vehicle costs are included in the calculation, according to a study conducted by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research.

On a per-mile basis, median driver revenue is $0.59, though vehicle operating expenses cut real driver profit to only $0.29.

Ride-hailing operators have taken millions of customers on billions of rides since 2009, the report says. “These rides are delivered by hundreds of thousands of independent contractors who face uncertain customer demand and bear the expenses of operating a vehicle. This profession is less than a decade old with few established norms and enormous turnover, estimated between 50% and 96% per year.”